TYB
this isn´t new technology
gas is heated up with electricity (from solarpanes) and the gas shoots out with exstream speed.
they can keep the burn going for a long time, unlike rockets.
nothing, it´s space. half of the energy goes to the gas pushing out, half energy pushes the spacecraft foward.
think of an airballoon you breath into and then you let it go, and it goes up in the air until the airpressure inside the balloon is equal to the surrounding airpressure.
Half of energy goes into pushing the air out of the balloon, half pushes the balloon forwards… until airpressure is equal outside and inside
same principal, different technique
>>23213568 me
this is the basics of all rockets, like in launches from a launchpad. They light stuff on fire, lots and lots of heat and airpressure, that shoots down in the exhaust… and pushed the rocket up in the sky
These ion-thrusters gas electricity types use gas, heated up by electricity from solarpanels… so they get lots of energy from Sun, which they don´t have to take with them in any form
The ion-thrusters are much much weaker than rocket engines, but they can burn much much longer.
Because they are so weak they can only push small spacecrafts, i.e. unmanned.